Adelaide fest selects new topper

Duthie will move from Australia's ABC

SYDNEY — Amanda Duthie, topper of arts and entertainment at pubcaster the ABC, has been tapped as topper of the Adelaide Film Festival.

Duthie takes over from Katrina Sedgwick, who stepped down after a nine-year stint at the fest at the end of the 2011 edition.

Duthie says she is not concerned that most of her experience is on the smallscreen, especially as some of her TV slate has appeared at the fest in the past.

“I think the walls are coming down between cinema and television and galleries and phones even in terms of the work we are all looking towards and commissioning,” she told Daily Variety.

The Adelaide fest is a biennale with the next installment due Oct. 10-20, 2013, and Duthie says she will look “about 12 months out” for programming to fill the fest.

Exec will also help steer the fest’s Investment Fund, a $1 million pot of coin distributed every two years. Fund had success in 2009 when it backed Warwick Thornton’s indigenous drama, “Samson and Delilah,” which won the Camera d’Or at Cannes and was Australia’s entry in the foreign language Oscar category. More recently, the fund backed helmer Justin Kurzel’s serial killer drama, “Snowtown,” that was selected for Cannes this year.

“The fund has enabled some truly amazing work and we want to continue that,” she said. “That’s a really exciting component of the job.”